Recently in School Bus Category

Source: By James Pilcher, Enquirer (OH), July 20, 2010

Backed by the nation's largest transit unions, a fired bus driver from Oakland, Calif. Tuesday filed a class action lawsuit against downtown Cincinnati-based First Transit, saying the transit company's policy barring individuals with felony convictions is discriminatory against blacks and Hispanics and violates long-standing civil rights laws.

Experts say that the case could change hiring practices for all companies nationally whoever prevails, and could set major labor law precedent.

..... First Transit is a subsidiary of downtown-based First Group America, the nation's largest private provider of transit services for public city bus systems as well as public and private school districts, and also owns Greyhound Bus Lines.

...... The Amalgamated Transit Union says that the policy violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which states that employers can't base hiring on a past felony conviction if it would disproportionately impact minority groups.

Source: By Jackie Harrison-Martin, News Herald (MI) Tuesday, June 15, 2010

 "This is their worst fear, and this was our worst fear."

Those were the words of school board President Alvin Szczepaniak on the decision Wednesday by the Board of Education to privatize transportation and custodial/maintenance work in the district.

... First Student, based in Ohio, and GCA Services Group, based out of Illinois, will handle the transportation and custodial/maintenance services, respectively.

.... Smith said the bus drivers have been hired by the company at the same pay rate received through the district. However, many in transportation and custodial/maintenance will have to pay a portion of their health insurance.

Source: By Bill Bush, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH (OH), Tuesday, June 8, 2010  11:19 PM

Like a stubborn foreman with a hung jury, Columbus school board President Carol Perkins pushed her colleagues tonight to debate the details of a $14.2 million-a-year bus contract again and again.

..... That means First Student - the company that shut down the district for a day in 2007 after one of its drivers was caught with a cocaine-filled syringe - will be the sole private bus contractor for the district until 2013.

The company will not let the district down, said Roger Moore, First Student regional vice president, after winning the three-year contract on the 4-3 vote.

Source: By Beth Smith, The Suburbanite (OH), New! Fri Jun 05, 2009, 10:02 AM EDT

Members of the Coventry Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) accepted a pay freeze and rolled over their contract. The announcement was made at the school board meeting by Brian Smith, president. OAPSE represents clerical, support staff and bus drivers.  Closely related, a number of citizens attended the meeting expressing concerns about the future of busing and Coventry bus drivers.

.... School Superintendent Rusty Chaboudy has begun an exploration of Petermann LLC  to provide bus transportation for the district's students. Coventry would give up their bus fleet and the cost of its maintenance in favor of buses dispatched from a Petermann terminal on Triplett Blvd.

Source:By Amanda McGregor, Salem News (MA), June 09, 2009

 School bus driver Carmella Cote said she can't count the number of times she has comforted students, or sung to them to calm them down for the ride to and from school.  Other drivers said they always call families if they are running late and try to adhere to a consistent routine, which is important to many children with special needs.

..... The drivers and monitors are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, which is set to meet with the school administration on Thursday afternoon for "impact bargaining."  Union members said yesterday that they are ready to make concessions in order to save their jobs.

Source: Mid Hudson News (NY), April 24, 2009

The Port Jervis City School District Board of Education Thursday night approved a $59 million 2009-2010 academic year budget which includes the privatization of student transportation.

...... There are 100 district employees who work in the transportation department and are represented by the CSEA. Some may get picked up by the private company, but they would lose in the end, said union spokeswoman Jessica Ladlee. "It's lower wages, minimum benefits," she said. "Right now, we have workers here who have invested many, many years with the district, but they are not quite at retirement age, so it puts them in a very tough position because they had years in the state retirement system but they are not quite where they need to be in order to receive a full pension."

Source: HometownLife.com (MI), March 27, 2009

Custodial and transportation services for the Bloomfield Hills Schools will not be privatized. Instead, the school board voted unanimously Thursday night to adopt a new five-year contract with AFSCME Local 1628, which covers the district's approximately 178 bus drivers and custodians. The new agreement, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2009, and runs through Dec. 31, 2013, will save about $2.1 million, according to the district.

It includes changes in health care coverage and a contribution toward health care, wage reductions, holiday and vacation day reductions and overtime changes. Wages are frozen at their new levels for the first three years of the contract, with a wage opener in contract years 2012 and 2013.

Source: Reported by: Jennifer Denman, Ozarks First (MO), Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008 @07:57pm CST

The Springfield School District is in need of management to oversee its school bus system and the district is considering outsourcing the job or jobs.

....... Hosmer says he's not opposed to outsourcing, but worries what this could mean down the road. "You also have to understand these companies are taking part of your business and are doing it on a profit basis. the companies are making money off what they are doing for the district and you have to ask why can't we figure out how to do that in the district," says Hosmer.

Source: By Stephen Sacco, Times Herald-Record (NY), November 18, 2008

PORT JERVIS -- The Port Jervis School District is planning to privatize its transportation system by the end of the school year in 2010. District officials say capital investments weren't made, so they can't run the system properly. Union representative and district bus driver Betty Kranz, however, says the decision is causing distress to people who might lose their jobs. ......

A recent negotiation with the CSEA, the union that represents the bus drivers, allows the district to bid out to a private company a minimum of five bus runs. In exchange, the district has guaranteed that all current transportation department employees, even those on leave, will keep their jobs at least until the 2009-2010 school year, which ends on June 30, 2010. The CSEA contract also ends on June 30, 2010.

Source: By Stephen Sacco, Times Herald-Record (NY), August 30, 2008

The newly elected Board of Education has reopened the option of privatizing the school district's transportation system. The board has gotten bids for an attorney who could advise the district on labor issues that surround privatization.

....... Of concern are the jobs of roughly 250 CSEA union members who work for the district, the majority of them bus drivers, said Betty Kranz, a union representative and district bus driver.